Run event when the time equals a device value or string

[wmcmath]

I need to trigger an event when the time is equal to a device's value.
Specifically, I want to set a virtual device's value to a time such as 2300(hhmm). When the time is equal to the value of the device, I want to trigger an event.

I set the value of the device in HSTouch. I could also use, I believe, the device's string value.
The event would start a water sprinkler zone based on a time that can be changed from HSTouch.

[Uncle Michael]

One way to do this would be to use a recurring event that sets a (new) device value to the current time in the same format as your current watering time device. Then use EasyTrigger to trigger an event when the two device values become equal.

[Grundcm]

Years ago I was trying to do the same thing for a bedside alarm clock. I was hoping it would be as easy as to use the EasyTrigger String compare, but I couldn't get that to work for me. My solution was to do as Michael said about checking the time every minute. I put the current time into a virtual device to compare to my alarm time then ran the comparison script.


I have some other logic assembling the alarm time into the desired format, but my solution to compare the values was with a script.



Finally, here are the devices. You can see 377 and 379 down at the bottom. If they match, it turns 380 On which triggers my alarm.

[AllHailJ]

Here is the outline of a script that would be called on the days needed at midnight. It would check every 60 seconds to see if it should activate the zone. After activation it would exit. The event to water would be manually triggered.

You will need to create global variable in startup.vb to store the HSTouch settings.

An outline script is given below to get you started. You could pass parameters if you want.

'Trigger a zone

Sub Main()

Dim ZoneTime As Time = hs.GetVar("zntime") 'get the time set by hstouch
Dim CurrentTime As DateTime

'You need to add the current date to the time to get a datetime for your hstouch time. <-------------------------------------

Do While Minute < 1438 'allow for some time creep

CurrentTime = Time 'Set the current time

If (ZoneTime - CurrentTime).TotalSeconds < 59 then

hs.TriggerEvent "WaterZone" 'Activate your watering device or event here

Exit Sub 'Exit after it is run

End If

Minute = Minute + 1

hs.WaitSecs(60)

Loop

End Sub

[AllHailJ]

Here is my startup.vb to declare and initialize global variables. It is .vb on my system but have to rename to .txt to upload.

Startup.txt

[wmcmath]

Many thanks to everyone's responses. I will try each of the methods provided to me. Your help is really appreciated.

[kinclance]

Years ago I was trying to do the same thing for a bedside alarm clock. I was hoping it would be as easy as to use the EasyTrigger String compare, but I couldn't get that to work for me. My solution was to do as Michael said about checking the time every minute. I put the current time into a virtual device to compare to my alarm time then ran the comparison script.


I have some other logic assembling the alarm time into the desired format, but my solution to compare the values was with a script.



Finally, here are the devices. You can see 377 and 379 down at the bottom. If they match, it turns 380 On which triggers my alarm.

This is exactly what im working on right now - thanx!
However, Im stuck on how you combine the values from 374, 375 and 376 into your device 377?

[Grundcm]

I have an event that runs whenever any of the values change:



And here is the logic inside "Alarm_Time_Load.vb": ( I did not use a picture, maybe you can copy/paste and save some time.


Sub Main(parm as object)

Dim Chh as String
Dim Cmm as String
Dim Campm as Integer


Chh=hs.DeviceValue(374)
Cmm=hs.DeviceValue(375)
Campm=hs.DeviceValue(376)


if Campm=0 then
if Cmm<10 then
hs.SetDeviceString(377, Chh & ":0" & Cmm & " AM", True)
else
hs.SetDeviceString(377, Chh & ":" & Cmm & " AM", True)
End If
else
if Cmm<10 then
hs.SetDeviceString(377, Chh & ":0" & Cmm & " PM", True)
else
hs.SetDeviceString(377, Chh & ":" & Cmm & " PM", True)
End If
End If




As always there is probably a better or at least many different ways to do this. This is just the first way I got it to work.